When our lorry broke down, Dad promised me we would have it back on time to go to Crofton the Friday before Hickstead to give the 5yo's a chance to jump a decent Newcomers track before we went, and just to get a bit more used to Acco again after not riding him since February. (Thank you so much to Zoe and Anna for letting me steal him again!)

All plans were going well, we were going to take Tiny, Leo, Acco, new ride Max and Anita's two horses, the 4 big ones in the lorry, and the two little ones with mum driving Anna's trailer.

Acco was being dropped off the night before and Anna was going to leave the trailer with us to borrow. We were going to lend her our trailer, which is too heavy to tow two horses in with mum's car....

All sounding straightforward.

I then get a call from Dad about 5pm to say we can't have the lorry 'tomorrow' because it had been more complicated than he thought to get it paid for and picked up from lorry hospital and he'd run out of time. I rung around like crazy for the cheapest quote for a 4 horse lorry, the next day!

Finally, after booking a 4 horse lorry with the huge help of a friend and her many local contacts, Anna calls me to say she's stuck on the hard shoulder of the M4 with Acco because her trailer tyre has blown up and could mum come and rescue them.

After getting the slow lane of the M4 closed and mum on her way to the rescue, I had the new challenge, now 6pm, of finding a 6 horse lorry and driver to take us to Crofton and 6:30am the next morning!

Somehow, at 7pm, we did it!!

So off to Crofton we went bright and early with Wally Hagger, who was so helpful!!!

Max jumped lovely rounds in the British Novice and 1m Open, just having the last down in both but considering it's only the 2nd and 3rd course he's ever jumped, I was delighted with him and was probably just getting a bit mentally tired. He jumped really well and didn't spook at anything.

I had 5 horses in the 1m Open, which was a speed class, but luckily there were 63 entries so we had plenty of time. I don't like small speed classes as I'm too competitive to just 'go round' them, other than Max who was on a ticket, and then I end up going faster than I would have liked, but they mostly jumped well with Tiny coming 3rd, Leo 9th and new ride KEC Charlotta 'Queenie' in 10th, having only ridden her once the day before! Acco was amazing but had one down through probably trying to go a bit quick. One day my competitive spirit might calm down...

Queenie then jumped a nice clear in the 1.10m Open, so very pleased with her, and Acco, Tiny and Leo all jumped well in the Newcomers for one down each, which after 10 rounds for me it probably wasn't them that caused the faults...I need to get used to jumping a lot of horses in one day! But couldn't fault the ponies, and an educational last run before Hickstead for all involved.

Tiny's training has clearly worked well - she made every distance and won the British notice by 8 seconds!

She then jumped a great discovery round but napped in the jump off whilst jumping the last fence so ended up landing facing the opposite direction to the one that she'd taken off in, bypassing the finish line and having the back rail! A bit annoying but highly amusing on her part...

Then it was off to East Soley on the Sunday morning for dressage with Max and Sox. Max was at his first ever show and behaved immaculately and despite a little bit of wobbliness he managed to come 2nd with 64.8%. Sox was a little under par but still did a nice test to come 3rd.

A quick 'horse swap' later and we were off to Bicester and Finmere show to jump Tiny on grass. She jumped 2 double clears, one in the Discovery to finish 5th and another in the 1.05m. Really pleased and trying to get all the ponies out again next week!